Ghost pages on site map

[Retired]

I have recently renewed my hosting account with Blue Host. I changed the name and deleted all the sites I had up previously. I put up a site using Front Page. When I added a site map the site map listed many pages of one of the sites I had taken down-I even deleted them from the computer. Doing a site search on Google produces the same results.

I had also put a Joomla site and a word press blog and the Google site search showed listings from the deleted sites.

I have talked with BlueHost techs and am told that Bluehost hosting has nothing to do with that.

Does anyone know how I can correct this problem?

[areidmtm]

It takes a while for google to re-index your site. Now that you have a new site, google will have to see it as such and will take sometime before you start seeing the new results in google. That's just how google works.

[Retired]

Thanks areidmtm for the reply. would that apply to the site"s site map?

[felgall]

That would depend on how you are generating the sitemap.

[Retired]

On one account I used Front Page and used the site map function on Front Page.

On my Joomla account the only thing I have done is to upload some extensions. When I checked the contents to see if I had a problem I found everything listed on my server account listed. That stuff didn't have any thing to do with the site I was checking.

[dwaymire]

See my blog at http://www.davidwaymire.com (http://www.davidwaymire.com/2007/12/sitemap-generator/) for how I handle sitemaps on my Wordpress site.

[Lydia123]

Is installing a sitemap something that has to be proactively done, or is it an automatic feature of a website? From what little I understand of it, its purpose is to help the search engines find you. Well, if you register with the search engines -and even if you don't- they'll find you anyhow. Why is a sitemap needed?

[redsox9]

If you are using "canned" software like Wordpress or Joomla, those programs usually have site mapping capabilities built into them.

From Wikipedia:


[In general, a] site map (or sitemap) is a graphical representation of the architecture of a web site... Site maps can improve search engine optimization of a site by making sure that all the pages can be found. This is especially important if a site uses Macromedia Flash or JavaScript menus that do not include HTML links. Most search engines will only follow a finite number of links from a page, so if a site is very large, the site map may be required so that search engines and visitors can access all content on the site.

In short, site maps help the search engines learn about your site and what content you want to highlight the most beyond your top-level page.

[Lydia123]

My site was done with WordPress and Front Page. I assume they both have site mapping capablities built in. Do I have to "activate" them in some way to optimize all pages being indexed?

[redsox9]

I believe the answer is "no" for Wordpress. I'm not sure about Joomla but I would assume that is true.